The present invention relates to a mobile terminal apparatus such as a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc.
Mobile terminal apparatus such as a mobile phone according to the related art have a mute function. For example, if a mute key is pushed during a telephone call, a mute mode is executed. In the mute mode, for example, a microphone is in an OFF state so that a voice is not transmitted to an intended party. If a release key (which may be configured by the mute key) is pushed, the mute mode is released to return to a state in which a voice is to be transmitted to the intended party.
As described above, when the mute mode is released by key operation by a user, the user is likely to forget the key operation so that the user should tell the intended party the same contents twice.
Meanwhile, it is possible to use a configuration for switching to the mute mode without key operation, for example, a configuration in which a contact detecting unit for detecting a contact of a finger is disposed in the vicinity of a microphone, and the mute mode is executed while a contact of finger is being detected by the contact detecting unit (see JP 2007-081460 A).